The thrust of the proposed work in this project is the investigation of known and potential endocrine genetic mutant mice with growth disorders that may serve as biomedical research models for analogous disorders in man. Individual experiments will be executed to: (1) Characterize established, inherited murine growth disorders and exploit such mutant mice to develop our understanding of normal and abnormal growth processes. (2) Develop therapeutic treatments that will ameliorate the growth disorders in mice and by analogy prove fruitful for treatment of human disorders; (3) Search for and characterize new mutated genes in the mouse causing growth defects, thus providing additional models for investigation of causative factors in such defects; and (4) To make the presently known and future mutated genes of the mouse that affect growth processes known and available to the scientific community.
